


then maybe time would not erase me

by julie_and_the_fat_ones



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 19:48:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29159163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/julie_and_the_fat_ones/pseuds/julie_and_the_fat_ones
Summary: A rewrite of the "Unsaid Emily" scene from Luke's POV, if his parents could see him. Juke.
Relationships: Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 4
Kudos: 65





	1. Chapter 1

Luke flashed in in front of his parents house, intending to just sit with them as he normally did. However, out of his peripheral vision, he noticed someone standing to his left. He was surprised to realize it was Julie standing there, nearly ringing the door bell. She seemed startled as well, having jumped slightly at his arrival.

“Luke!”

“What are you doing here?” He asked, turning to face her.

“Okay, look. I- I just wanted to know more about you, you know, just curious, um… so, I- I came here last week. On your birthday?”

“You were spying on me?” He asked incredulously. She looked at the ground, and he continued. “Even after all your speeches about boundaries? You were spying on me?”

“I know,” she said, looking back up. “I’m sorry. It was wrong. But I’m worried about you.:

“Well, you don’t have to be.”

Luke turned away from her, facing his parents’ driveway, but Julie apparently decided that the conversation wasn’t over.

“I know how hard it is, when you want to speak to someone, and you can’t. I feel that way _every day_.”

“I don’t even know what I’d say to her, even if she could hear me,” Luke said, turning back to face her.

“Yes, you do,” Julie insisted. “You’ve already said it.”

She looked at the ground, obviously thinking about something.

“I only came here to give your parents the song, but… if you’re comfortable with it… maybe we could perform it for them?”

Luke stared at her, not understanding.

“You can flash in your guitar, I’ll play it for you while you sing. My mom taught me before she passed, I just prefer the piano. As long as I keep playing, they’ll be able to see you. You can talk to them, if you wanted.”

He thought about it for a minute. He wasn’t sure how well his parents would take it, but if they took it well, he would finally be able to get some closure after 25 years.

“Yeah, okay,” he said, willing his guitar to him. He held it out for Julie, and she grabbed where his hand was, passing right through to the guitar. She put the strap around her shoulder, moving it so the guitar rested on her back. Luke sighed, moving to ring the doorbell before he could change his mind, keeping his eyes locked on Julie’s. He went to stand behind her as the door opened.

“Hello, can I help you?”

The first thing Luke noticed was how much _older_ his dad looked. He had only been forty when Luke died, and while, yes, it had been 25 years, he didn’t realize just how _long_ it had been until now.

“Hi. I’m Julie. Um… I believe you had a son named Luke?”

“Uh, yes, that’s right. And you are again?”

“Julie Molina. Um… your son’s band used to play in my family’s garage? I- I came across this song that he wrote and figured you might be interested?”

“Um… well, well yes. Uh, please… please come in. I’m… I’m Mitch.”

“Nice to meet you,” Julie replied, following his dad inside. Luke didn’t realized he’d not moved until Julie turned around, motioning with her head for him to follow.

“Can I, uh, get you something?” His dad asked Julie, leading her into the living room.

“Oh, no. I’m good. Thank you.” She looked at something at the end table, and Luke realized it was the picture of him from his second birthday. “Is this your son?”

Luke moved to stand closer to her as his dad answered. “Yeah, that’s Luke. When he was two.”

“Do you have any other children?”

“No.”

Julie looked as if she wanted to say more, but footsteps coming from the kitchen prevented her from doing so. Luke drew in a breath as his mom came into the living room, moving to stand next to his dad. “Did I hear the doorbell?”

“Hi, hon. Um, this is Julie.”

“Hello, Julie,” his mom greeted her. “Oh, that’s a beautiful sweater.”

“Thanks. It’s my mom’s.”

Luke knew that a couple of weeks ago, she hadn’t even looked through her mom’s stuff, so the fact that she was wearing one of her sweaters was a big step in moving on for her.

“Julie lives in the house where Luke and the band rehearsed. She was just telling me she found a song that Luke wrote.”

“It’s a song about a girl named… Emily?”

It was obvious to Luke that she knew exactly who it was about, but she obviously couldn’t assume in front of his parents. At least, not yet.

“Oh… I’m Emily.”

His mom stepped forward, and Julie continued speaking. “I- I know this might sound crazy but, I didn’t find this song. I- Luke… he gave it to me.”

“I- but… you’re only sixteen, right?” His mom asked her, confused.

“Yes, he gave it to me last week. See, I know you may not believe me, but when I was cleaning out my mom’s studio about a month ago, I came across this CD labeled ‘Sunset Curve’. I’d never seen it before, so I decided to play it. Not even ten seconds into the song, the music cut off, and three boys seemingly fell through thin air and onto the floor in front of me. Those boys were Luke, Alex, and Reggie. Somehow, they came back as ghosts, 25 years later, and somehow, we’re connected. I’m the only one who can see them but for some reason, we’re not sure how, whenever we play together, people can see them. Everyone thinks their holograms,” Julie laughed slightly at that, and Luke thought she was thinking of the first time they played together. It seemed like so long ago. “I know you probably don’t believe me, but Luke wanted to see you guys again, to talk to you. That’s why I came here, with his guitar and song.”

Both of his parents looked shocked and confused, and maybe even a little skeptical, but Luke didn’t blame them. How often was one told by a teenager that their dead son had come back as ghosts and only she could see them if they weren’t playing together.

“I- maybe this would help.”

Julie gently grabbed the song sheet back from his mom and placed it on the table where his picture was sitting, standing behind the table so she could still face his parents. She began playing the intro to the song, and Luke moved to stand right next to her, beginning to sing as she finished the intro.

Luke could tell the exact moment that his parents could see him. The way they jumped back reminded him vaguely of when they played flying solo for Flynn, except this time it was different; so much different.

As he went through the song, he stayed next to Julie, not wanting to move away from her constant support. He’d have to thank her later, back at the house. He’d never have the courage to do something like this if it wasn’t for her.

The song finished, but Julie kept playing, restarting the intro. Luke hastily wiped the tear trailing down his cheek, trying to gain some composure.

“I- I’m sorry for running away. I meant to come back, after we played the Orpheum, but, well…” he cut off, looking at Julie, who smiled encouragely. He faced his parents again. “But… I’m not sorry for how things turned out anyways. I’m glad we came back as ghosts when we did. We wouldn’t have met Julie otherwise and I-“ he trailed off, not sure if it would be a good idea to go the direction he wanted to with that sentence. “She’s a much better friend to us than Bobby ever was, I mean, he took all the credit for the songs that _I_ wrote and didn’t even tell our families. I’m glad we got this second chance to be a band with Julie, even if we had to die first to do it.”

He looked back at Julie, who was staring at him in shock, then back to his parents, who looked almost… guilty. “I- I gotta go.”

He took the guitar from Julie when she offered it and flashed out, not sticking around to see his parents’ reactions.

**Thinking about making a part two for the conversation he and Julie had after words, not really sure. Let me know what you think! Also normally I don’t think that Julie can play the guitar, as I like to think in season two there would be this super cute scene where Luke is teaching her how to play, but for the sake of the story, I had to.**


	2. Chapter Two

Luke sat leaning against the pillar next to the Molina’s front door, waiting for Julie to walk back home. He knew he should’ve waited for her, but he just needed to leave. It was getting to emotional, even for him. Thankfully, though, he only had to wait about ten minutes before he heard Julie approach.

“Hey,” she said, putting her arms behind her back.

“Hey.”

“I’m sorry for overstepping.”

“No, I… I just had to leave,” Luke said, moving from his spot against the pillar in order to stand in front of her. “That was…”

“You don’t have to say anything,” Julie interrupted him, and normally Luke would’ve taken the out, but for some reason, he just wanted to share everything with her.

“Yeah, I do, um… I didn’t have many regrets in my life except for running out on my parents. Especially my mom, so… Thank you.”

“You helped me feel more connected to my mom, so…” She shrugged. “I wanted to do the same for you.

“That was perfect,” Luke told her, meaning every bit of it. Out of habit, he reached for her hand, but of course, her hand went right through his. Julie turned back towards the driveway, pursing her lips. He sighed deeply. “This is an interesting little relationship you and I have.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that she was smiling.

“So…” she started, still facing the driveway. “What were you gonna say, back there at your parents’ house? Before you said how great of a friend I am.”

“I- it was nothing. I just couldn’t get the words out, that’s all.”

Luke didn’t want to tell her what he was actually thinking, it would just make things more complicated. You can’t exactly have a relationship with somebody when one of the people died 25 years ago. It just wouldn’t work. 

“Right,” she said, and Luke could tell by the look on her face that she was thinking the same thing he was. “Oh, my gosh, I almost forgot to tell you. Flynn said the video that my dad made is trending on YouTube.”

Luke shook his head, confused by both the sudden change in conversation, and the term “trending”. Sometimes he forgets that it’s 2020 now.

“That’s a good thing,” Julie clarified. “That means people love our music. We’ll definitely be getting calls from managers now.”

She looked so happy, staring at the driveway contently, and Luke really, really didn’t want to ruin the night, but he suddenly felt so guilty for not telling her about Caleb sooner, and he just couldn’t keep it from her anymore, not when they didn’t even know if they would be there in the morning when she woke up.

“There’s something I have to tell you,” he said, turning to face her.

“Oh… Ok.” Julie turned to face him as well, and he dreaded to see the look on her face when he told her what they’d done.

“We figured out that we have unfinished business. That’s why we came back as ghosts.”

“Oh. What is it?”

“We have to play the show we never got to play.”

“At the Orpheum. That makes sense.”

Luke was about to say something else, but suddenly he was hit with the biggest surge yet, forcing him to stumble back until he hit the pillar several feet back, groaning. Julie walked towards him slowly, obviously concerned, and he winced. This wasn’t how he wanted her to find out about the surges.

“We don’t have a lot of time.”

“What was that? Are you ok?”

“We did something that we shouldn’t have. The night that we missed the dance, we met this ghost, and he put this curse on us. And if we don’t do what he says, then those jolts will destroy us.”

“Then you gotta do what he says. What does he want?”

“He wants us to be in house band for eternity,” Luke told her, finally lifting his eyes back to hers as he stood up again. “But if we can play the Orpheum soon, then we can avoid all that and actually cross over.”

“’Cross Over’? As in like, what? Like go to heaven?”

“That’s what we’re banking on,” he said , looking back towards the ground again, unable to see the look in her eyes when she finally understands what’s happening.

“So, it’s either you cross over, be in his band for eternity, or be destroyed by those jolts?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s just great,” Julie said, a sad smile on her face. Without saying anything else, she walked back to the house, going inside without looking back at him.

“Julie…” Luke tried to get her to come back, but it was too late. She had already closed the door. He sighed heavily, running a hand through his hair before flashing to the studio.

“I messed up,” he said as fell onto the couch next to Alex

***

When Luke, Alex, and Reggie realized that they couldn’t cross over still, Luke had to admit that he was a bit scared. There was no way they were going back to Caleb, especially since it meant that they would never get to play with Julie again, and ceasing to exist didn’t seem like a much better option. However, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that he was okay with this outcome. They helped Julie get her love for music back, and that was all that really mattered to him at this point. 

The three of them decided that they would wait in the studio until, as Julie said, the jolts destroyed them. Alex seemed to disagree with the idea, arguing that Julie wouldn’t go straight to bed as Luke and Reggie were saying, but every time Luke brushed it off. It would be late when she got back, and she was no doubt going to be tired from performing. So, Luke didn’t believe Alex. 

Until the studio doors opened.

All three of them tried to stay as quiet as possible, hoping that Julie wasn’t planning on turning the lights on. Thankfully, it seemed as if that wasn’t her intention when she came out there.

Luke heard Julie take a deep, shaky breath, and he wanted nothing more to go over to her and comfort her, even if he couldn’t touch her, but he knew that they had to make her believe that they had crossed over.

“I… I know I already said this but, uh…” Julie paused for a moment, and Luke held his breath. “Thank you, guys.”

“You’re welcome,” Reggie said out of the blue, and Luke bit back a groan. Something Alex failed at.

“Dude!” Luke sighed, wishing he had the energy to kick him. He heard Julie walk towards the light switch and blinked against the brightness when she flicked it on. He lifted his head to look at her, but almost immediately laid back down.

“Why… Why are you here? I… I thought…”

Julie was cut off when another jolt hit all three of them, stronger than any of them had been before, causing them all to groan in pain. Luke knew they didn’t have much time, and he wanted to get Julie out of the studio before that time came.

“No… No! I thought you crossed over, why didn’t you cross over?”

“I guess playing the Orpheum wasn’t our unfinished business,” Alex told her as the three of them moved into sitting positions in an attempt to look stronger than they actually were.

“Point Caleb,” Reggie added, trying to lighten the mood, as always. It didn’t work.

Julie looked at Luke for answers, real answers, and he couldn’t keep anything from her. Not anymore. So he caved.

“We wanted you to think that we crossed over, so we pretended to,” he told her, still squinting because of the light. “We just… We had nowhere else to go.”

“We thought you’d go straight to bed,” Reggie said.

“Yeah, well, I knew she was gonna come out here, but nobody ever listens to me.” This time, it was Alex who was interrupted by a jolt. That was twice in less than five minutes; they were getting closer together.

“You have to save yourselves, right now,” Julie begged, walking up to Reggie, and then Alex. Then she walked over to Luke. “Go join Caleb’s club. Please. It’s better than not existing at all. Please, just go. Go! Poof out! Do something! Please, do it for me. Please.”

Julie looked right at him when she said that last part, and Luke had to turn his eyes downward in order to avoid her gaze.

“We’re not going back there,” Reggie said, stating what they were all thinking. Luke stood up, needing to make her understand. 

“No music is worth making, Julie, if we’re not making it with you,” he told her. “No regrets.”

Luke took a deep, shaky breath in an attempt to keep his composure. Julie stared at him for a moment before she rushed forward, wrapping her arms around his neck. He knew that he should be wondering how this was possible, how she didn’t just fall through him, but Luke was too tired to think about it. Instead, his arms immediately came up to wrap around her back, his right arm pressing against her lower back and his left wrapping around her shoulders in an attempt to pull her as close as possible.

“I love you guys,” Julie said, exhaling slowly. She didn’t let go of him until he started glowing, which, okay, Luke had seen weirder things since he came back as a ghost, but was not something he was necessarily expecting. 

He slowly moved his hands to take Julie’s as she moved her own down his arms, finally realizing that she was able to touch him, which shouldn’t of been possible. “How can I feel you?”

“I… I… I don’t know,” he replied, shaking his head. Julie gasped, moving her hands away from his in order to cup his face, and he followed suit, running his thumbs over her cheeks. “I…” He laughed slightly as they stared at each other. Luke wanted to kiss her; now that he could touch her, there was no excuse to be had for why he couldn’t address their “interesting little relationship”, but he wanted her permission, and didn’t want their first kiss to be in front of their bandmates, so he settled for pressing his lips to her forehead instead, relishing at the feel of her skin under his lips for a moment before he pulled back, grasping Julie’s hands in his own again as he turned to face their bandmates. “I feel stronger,” he said, turning back towards Julie.

“Alex, Reggie, come.”

Luke stepped back, allowing their bandmates to stand next to Julie in what was honestly a long overdue band hug. They only stayed hugging for a minute, however, before Alex and Reggie started to pull back, obviously feeling the effect of hugging Julie.

“I… I… I don’t feel as weak anymore,” Reggie said.

“Yeah, me neither,” Alex added. “Not that, you know, I was ever that weak.”

Everyone laughed at his attempt to cover up his weakness, but before anyone could say anything else, Luke felt a weird pull at his right wrist, the same wrist that he had used to shake Caleb’s hand and get stamped. It seemed as if Alex and Reggie had felt it too, as they suddenly held their arm out next to his. Luke could see the symbol of Caleb’s stamp appear on their wrists before lifting off, fading into nothing.

“What…” Julie mumbled as they watched the stamps fade away. “What do you think that means?”

Luke laughed quietly. “I think the band’s back,” he told her, unable to keep the grin from spreading across his face.

“You guys think we could try that hug thing one more time?” Alex asked, breaking the silence that had fallen. Everyone laughed.

“Yeah.”

They all moved back to the hug, closer than they were just a minute ago. Julie patted his arms twice as Alex said, “Hugs are good.” 

Again, everyone laughed as they pulled apart for a moment, just long enough for Reggie to say, “I like this.”

“Me too,” Julie replied. “We played the Orpheum!”

“Yeah, we did!” Alex agreed.

They stayed that way for several minutes before they pulled away. Luke, not wanting the moment to be over, walked the two steps towards Julie and pulled her into his arms again, already missing the feeling it gave him. She stood up on her toes in order to wrap her arms around his shoulders. 

Luke heard the sound of someone flashing out, and assumed that Alex and Reggie had left, but he didn’t really care. All he was focused on was the girl currently in his arms, where he wished she could stay forever because oh my God it felt like she was made to fit there.

“I thought I was about to lose you. All of you,” she added hastily, burying her head further into his shoulder. He chuckled.

“Me too,” Luke told her, hoping that she meant what he thinks she meant at first. “But we’re not leaving, not anymore. I don’t know what you did, but somehow you managed to lift Caleb’s stamp on us. I promise, we’ll never do anything stupid like that again.”

“Well, I can’t hope you guys won’t do something stupid,” Julie said, leaning back to look at him. “It seems to be your thing. Just promise you won’t get yourselves almost killed, again.”

“I can promise that,” he said quietly, leaning closer to her. He watched as Julie’s eyes fluttered closed, but he made himself ask still. “Can I… can I kiss you?”

Julie huffed out a laugh, and he could feel it against his lips, he was that close. 

“Yeah. Yes, you can.”

Luke wasted no more time in leaning down to close the rest of the gap between them, moving his hands to better secure her against him. They stayed that way for several minutes until Julie pulled back regretfully, leaning her forehead against his, breathing heavily.

“Not that I’m not enjoying this, but if I don’t go back inside soon, my dad’s going to become worried. I… I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Of course,” Luke promised, loosening his grip on her. She smiled at him once more before stepping back, walking towards the door. He waited until he was completely sure she was out of earshot until… “Yes!”

This ending sucked but I literally had no idea how to end this :/ 

Thank you for all of the support for the last part and for my other story, it means a lot!

I just realized, how can they advertise this show as a “kid’s show” if they killed the main characters, and then almost killed them again eight episodes later???


End file.
